1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a secure communications methodology and to a computer system using such a methodology, and more particularly to a computer system having improved communications and security features, the communications and security features being adapted for use in a wide variety of applications and computer systems and being further adapted to allow for relatively secure and selective computer, data, and other types of information communication to occur.
2. Background
Computer systems have become an essential tool in most of today's business activities. Importantly and by way of example, these computer systems have become critical to the on-going overall operation of many important industries, such as and without limitation, the banking, finance, travel, and commodities trading industries. It has been widely noted that while these computer systems have become quite sophisticated they have remained and/or have become concomitantly quite susceptible to unwanted and undesired “break-ins”, data and communication “capture”, and security “failures” resulting in an undesirable disruption to the various businesses in which they are employed and resulting in a loss and/or an undesired modification/extraction of sensitive data. In fact, many industry observers have consistently noted that undesired interception of data communications is a very serious problem facing each and every business utilizing any form of networked computer and/or networked communications.
To address these problems and security threats many types of communications systems and methods have been developed in an attempt to reduce the number of unauthorized individuals obtaining access to the “target” system (e.g. the desired recipient of the generated communication information) and/or to somehow intentionally alter and/or modify the content of the transmitted message in a manner in which the message and/or data is “scrambled” or made allegedly “indecipherable” to someone not having the knowledge of the manner in which the received data is to be deciphered or “descrambled”. In this manner, these prior systems and methodologies attempted to make it difficult for the unauthorized recipient of the message to understand and/or comprehend the meaning or actual information content contained within the communicated message.
While somewhat effective, many of these prior systems and prior methodologies have failed to adequately and desirably protect the “target” computer system against unwanted and undesired intrusion and have failed to adequately “mask” and/or “protect” the transmitted and generated data in a manner which adequately and desirably protects the data against unwanted “extraction”, “descrambling” and “decoding”. In sum, none of these prior computer systems and/or security and/or communications methodologies have adequately provided a desired level of security protection necessary to adequately and desirably ensure against unwanted system intrusion/modification and/or against unwanted and undesired communications interception, thereby substantially guarding against undesired system disruption and/or undesired data reception.
There is therefore a need for an improved computer security system and/or a computer and/or communications system methodology which increases the overall probability for secure communications and for secure system processing and operation while concomitantly reducing the overall probability of undesired and unwanted data extraction. Applicant's invention addresses these needs and overcomes the various drawbacks of these prior communications and computer systems.